I'm reading The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, finished the second book. Really good, although it did miss a little something that the first book had, felt some of the characters turned in to cliche's. Combat scenes are fucking great to read though.

Reading is definetly my favourite pastime, and whilst i haven't been able to read anywhere near as much as i used to since my son was born, i've been managing to find more time lately to do so, and have been thoroughly enjoying indulging in some good books. Some of my favourite authors include Anne Rice, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, J R R Tolkein and Laurell K Hamilton.

Over the last couple of months i've read:

Dracula The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker
Bullet by Laurell K Hamilton
Nightfall by Stephen Leather
Banquet For The Damned by Adam L G Nevill
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Dracula The Un-Dead was written by a direct descendant of Bram Stoker, and based on Brams own notes. If you come at this book with expectations that it may live up to Brams masterpiece, you will, rather unsurprisingly be dissapointed. If however you go into it without any pre-conceived notions of what should be expected from a horror novel written by a Stoker, and are generally a fan of the genre, i'm sure you will enjoy it. Without giving away too much of the story, the plot revolves around the Harker family from the original Dracula, the count himself, and the Ripper killings of 1888.

The Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton started off so strongly, with some truely engrossing novels, and went from strength to strength, introducing fascinating characters with intriguing histories. The action was always suspenseful, and the stories compelling. Unfortunately somewhere along the way the books became less about gripping supernatural drama and more about cheap eroticism. This book does however show that there is still hope for the series. Amongst all the dozen+ page long sex scenes there are still some enigmatic characters who you feel still have back stories that could make for some fantastic novels. Hopefully Hamilton can tone down the pseudo-pornography and get back to the storytelling, because this series still has a lot to offer.

Nightfall is a part detective, part supernatural novel. Not got an awful lot to say about it really. It was an fairly enjoyable book, but nothing to get to excited about. If you have a spare afternoon and fancy some light reading, it's worth a few hours of your time.

Banquet for the Damned is another supernatural novel. This one however is worth getting excited about, hopefully the author can produce more work of this quality. The story centres around Dante, a rock musician who travels to St Andrews, Scotland to help his idol, Elliot Coldwell, the author of the book that he feels changed his life, research material for his new book, and also create a concept album based on the first book. Once in Scotland, he finds his mentor, a professor of the occult at the local university to not quite be what he expected. St Andrews soon becomes the setting for a rash of mysterious deaths and it is obvious to Dante that Coldwell is somehow involved.

I'm going to assume that most of you are aware of the two other stories by Dan Brown involving Robert Langdon (Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code), either from the books or the films. The Lost symbol is more of the same, which i couldn't be happier about. As per the previous two books, this is a fascinating, suspenseful thriller that i really did not want to put down.

I've enjoyed all of these books, and am thrilled i've been able to find the time to get back into reading again. I'll be starting Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett tonight, and once finished shall be moving onto The Book of The Law by Aleister Crowley. Being that i've not had the time to read, i've not been keeping up to date with whats been released recently, so recommendations would be greatly appreciated. The only book that i'm looking forward to the release of at the moment is Life, the autobiography of Keith Richards, what a read that will be!

Anyways, I am taking a World Humanities class. Have some interesting books lined up for the semester. Already read Oedipus The King, which was quite good. Currently reading Homer's epic The Odyssey. About 6 books in and I really like it. Anyone else read it?

Got Dante's Inferno next on the list, which my professor said will be a challenge.

Anyways, I am taking a World Humanities class. Have some interesting books lined up for the semester. Already read Oedipus The King, which was quite good. Currently reading Homer's epic The Odyssey. About 6 books in and I really like it. Anyone else read it?

Got Dante's Inferno next on the list, which my professor said will be a challenge.

I've read Antigone but not Oedipus the King and all of The Odyssey. I like both, but The Odyssey is one of my favorites for sure. Odysseus is such a great reluctant hero, perhaps the first of the archetype.